Holland America not allowing AARP benefit to be combined with TA perks????

[shadow 123]

 My travel agent told me yesterday that Holland America would not allow the AARP benefit and her perks to be combined. I could get 1 or the other. I've never had this  before. Is this new ?

 

It has nothing to do with renewing my  AARP form with Holland America.

[gizmodog]

I have the hardest time ever getting the aarp SBC, seems there’s always a reason I can’t get it

[WatchHill]

The so called Deals menu is a source of frustration because qualifications are not clearly stated. We’ve been verified for aarp, educator, and veterans but see nothing posted to our booking. At one time it was so easy to validate the share holders perk. Now you have to download an app and jump through hoops. Out TA send me the directions and half way through the process I was ready for a double Chardonnay. On hold with HAL to confirm and gave up.  Other cruise lines we frequent make this process so much more user friendly. Love that princess lets us stack assorted perks and credits without question of their source 

 

 

 

 

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

2 hours ago, shadow 123 said:

 My travel agent told me yesterday that Holland America would not allow the AARP benefit and her perks to be combined. I could get 1 or the other. I've never had this  before. Is this new ?

 

It has nothing to do with renewing my  AARP form with Holland America.

I honestly do not believe this is correct unless your Travel Agent has a negotiated special rate that is extremely low or high $ SBC, I know of several instances of Travel Agent SBC from group pricing and personal gift from Travel Agent where the AARP credit was added with no problems. I have found that adding AARP credit takes a lot more persistence. The Over Seas Call Centers people tend to give NO quickly and not willing to try to add it, mostly due to they cannot and they must call into a supervisor. I have found that they do not like doing that and may even just hang up on you if it is something they cannot handle.  Basically to get the AARP credit added it takes in most cases several phone calls and reaching someone that is willing to call their "Lead" supervisor to get it added. The Travel Agent must be willing to not take NO for an answer and must be persistence in telling the agent that you have already sent in everything needed to qualify. Saying you have not sent in required proof is the next thing they give an excuse for after saying it is not combinable.

[shadow 123]

45 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I honestly do not believe this is correct unless your Travel Agent has a negotiated special rate that is extremely low or high $ SBC, I know of several instances of Travel Agent SBC from group pricing and personal gift from Travel Agent where the AARP credit was added with no problems. I have found that adding AARP credit takes a lot more persistence. The Over Seas Call Centers people tend to give NO quickly and not willing to try to add it, mostly due to they cannot and they must call into a supervisor. I have found that they do not like doing that and may even just hang up on you if it is something they cannot handle.  Basically to get the AARP credit added it takes in most cases several phone calls and reaching someone that is willing to call their "Lead" supervisor to get it added. The Travel Agent must be willing to not take NO for an answer and must be persistence in telling the agent that you have already sent in everything needed to qualify. Saying you have not sent in required proof is the next thing they give an excuse for after saying it is not combinable.

What you have said is so true. I have experienced tremendous difficulty lately on the phone with Holland America.  Especially the hanging up part.

[Djptcp]

I only book HAL cruises with my casino offers and the AARP benefit is not allowed with those offers.

[RobTheGob]

I wasn’t sure how to get the AARP benefit added to our upcoming cruise in September (booked through a big box store TA), but I saw others mentioning sending an email to reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com.

 

I sent an email late Thursday afternoon (Pacific time) and received a reply within 15 minutes stating that the OBC credit had been applied! Very fast & easy!

 

I really liked how the Stockperks worked - also very easy. Mind you - in the past all I did was send and email and wait, so not exactly difficult.

[mcrcruiser]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:33 AM, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I honestly do not believe this is correct unless your Travel Agent has a negotiated special rate that is extremely low or high $ SBC, I know of several instances of Travel Agent SBC from group pricing and personal gift from Travel Agent where the AARP credit was added with no problems. I have found that adding AARP credit takes a lot more persistence. The Over Seas Call Centers people tend to give NO quickly and not willing to try to add it, mostly due to they cannot and they must call into a supervisor. I have found that they do not like doing that and may even just hang up on you if it is something they cannot handle.  Basically to get the AARP credit added it takes in most cases several phone calls and reaching someone that is willing to call their "Lead" supervisor to get it added. The Travel Agent must be willing to not take NO for an answer and must be persistence in telling the agent that you have already sent in everything needed to qualify. Saying you have not sent in required proof is the next thing they give an excuse for after saying it is not combinable.

We just told our TA to speak with a HAL supervisor to get the  $200 in AARO credit added to our in board credits on our Jan 2025 Hawaii cruise .Thanks for the tip 

[shadow 123]

5 hours ago, RobTheGob said:

I wasn’t sure how to get the AARP benefit added to our upcoming cruise in September (booked through a big box store TA), but I saw others mentioning sending an email to reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com.

 

I sent an email late Thursday afternoon (Pacific time) and received a reply within 15 minutes stating that the OBC credit had been applied! Very fast & easy!

 

I really liked how the Stockperks worked - also very easy. Mind you - in the past all I did was send and email and wait, so not exactly difficult.

Thanks I just sent an email. We'll see what happens

[RobTheGob]

10 hours ago, RobTheGob said:

I wasn’t sure how to get the AARP benefit added to our upcoming cruise in September (booked through a big box store TA), but I saw others mentioning sending an email to reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com.

 

I sent an email late Thursday afternoon (Pacific time) and received a reply within 15 minutes stating that the OBC credit had been applied! Very fast & easy!

 

I really liked how the Stockperks worked - also very easy. Mind you - in the past all I did was send and email and wait, so not exactly difficult.

 

I was able to see my included perks after I posted - it does appear like I may have lost a $50 OBC after the AARP OBC perk was added!

 

Having said that - I'm not 100% sure where the $50 OBC came from, it just showed up earlier this week, but has now disappeared...

[WriterOnDeck]

18 hours ago, RobTheGob said:

I wasn’t sure how to get the AARP benefit added to our upcoming cruise in September (booked through a big box store TA), but I saw others mentioning sending an email to reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com.

 

I sent an email late Thursday afternoon (Pacific time) and received a reply within 15 minutes stating that the OBC credit had been applied! Very fast & easy!

 

I really liked how the Stockperks worked - also very easy. Mind you - in the past all I did was send and email and wait, so not exactly difficult.

Per the rules, you have to have your AARP membership linked to HAL before you book a cruise. The OBC does not apply to already booked cruises, just future bookings. Then it is appears -- easy peasy. I also found that once you have registered with StockPerks and downloaded its app, it is a very simple process.

[Sea42]

8 hours ago, RobTheGob said:

 

I was able to see my included perks after I posted - it does appear like I may have lost a $50 OBC after the AARP OBC perk was added!

 

Having said that - I'm not 100% sure where the $50 OBC came from, it just showed up earlier this week, but has now disappeared...

We found that $50 credit shows as available on your account when AARP is verified. That is just a default amount. In our case, after the correct $200 amount was applied to our cruise, the $50 available credit no longer showed in my husband's online account.

[RobTheGob]

44 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

We found that $50 credit shows as available on your account when AARP is verified. That is just a default amount. In our case, after the correct $200 amount was applied to our cruise, the $50 available credit no longer showed in my husband's online account.

 

That is likely exactly what happened - thanks!

[RobTheGob]

1 hour ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Per the rules, you have to have your AARP membership linked to HAL before you book a cruise. The OBC does not apply to already booked cruises, just future bookings. Then it is appears -- easy peasy. I also found that once you have registered with StockPerks and downloaded its app, it is a very simple process.

 

We actually joined and linked AARP after booking - so it was worthwhile taking the time to jump through the various hoops!

[shadow 123]

1 hour ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Per the rules, you have to have your AARP membership linked to HAL before you book a cruise. The OBC does not apply to already booked cruises, just future bookings. Then it is appears -- easy peasy. I also found that once you have registered with StockPerks and downloaded its app, it is a very simple process.

My AARP membership is  already linked

[gizmodog]

Email links above to ask about aarp credits did not work

[RobTheGob]

32 minutes ago, gizmodog said:

Email links above to ask about aarp credits did not work

 

I guess it’s not surprising that there is inconsistencies…

 

I realized that I had entered my info in SheerID before sending the email - that probably affected how well it worked for me.

 

SheerID HAL

[RRFan]

Here is my experience.  We are stock owners (have been for years).  We already had two cruises booked with HAL for 2024 when I read about the AARP and Educator benefits in March.  I submitted both requests but did not expect to get them on our April cruise since it was already booked.  We were notified that the AARP and Educator status was verified, but never got any confirmation on credit being applied.  When we boarded the ship and checked our statement on the Navigator app, we had $300 OBC that we weren't expecting (we were expecting the owner's benefit and this was in addition).  So Yeah!! and yes it was combined with our owner's benefit, the TA benefit from the booking and both husband and I got the AARP (we have two numbers) plus I got the educator benefit.  

 

While onboard, we booked an August cruise and I was asking the future cruise person about the AARP and Educator benefits and told her we got them on the current cruise.  She said to tell our TA (we were transferring the booking to our local TA) and the TA would be able to get them applied.  My TA says he will look at that this week.  I got the feeling this was something new to him but he hated to admit he was going to have to figure it out.  So hoping for the best and will follow up with HAL if he tells me he can't do it.  Such a surprising benefit amount (all 3 cruises were two weeks in length BTW).  

[shadow 123]

On 4/14/2024 at 12:02 PM, RobTheGob said:

 

I guess it’s not surprising that there is inconsistencies…

 

I realized that I had entered my info in SheerID before sending the email - that probably affected how well it worked for me.

 

SheerID HAL

I did this already. It was already confirmed. My current travel agent called HAL  again and they refuse to add it again. She said she couldn't combine both benefits. However, For next year I booked with a different travel agent and their perks and the AARP were both on my booking. Go figure.....

Edited May 7 by shadow 123

[margretha]

We were going to book a cruise and I jumped through the AARP hoop only to find our TA booked the cruise the day before I submitted the AARP info. She has a lot on her plate but losing out on the OBC did sting a little so I'm going to try that reservations email and see what happens. Also, was not aware you could only get some of the OBC once - like the military one. I jumped through that hoop only to be told we had already taken advantage of it on a prior cruise.

Sigh.

margretha

[RRFan]

1 hour ago, margretha said:

We were going to book a cruise and I jumped through the AARP hoop only to find our TA booked the cruise the day before I submitted the AARP info. She has a lot on her plate but losing out on the OBC did sting a little so I'm going to try that reservations email and see what happens. Also, was not aware you could only get some of the OBC once - like the military one. I jumped through that hoop only to be told we had already taken advantage of it on a prior cruise.

Sigh.

margretha

I know Princess gives the veteran’s benefit on every single cruise. We aren’t vets but they tell me once their Vet status was on file with PCL that benefit was automatically applied to every cruise they booked without them having to ask for it ever again. Kind of surprising that HAL would limit that. As I said earlier, we had booked a cruise weeks before I ever even knew about the AARP or educator benefit, but since I applied on the HAL site and got them verified, HAL automatically applied it to our next cruise. We didn’t know until we got onboard and checked our statement on the Navigator app that we got the OBC for all of it. What I don’t know is how to get it applied to my next two coming up later this year.  

[shadow 123]

23 minutes ago, RRFan said:

I know Princess gives the veteran’s benefit on every single cruise. We aren’t vets but they tell me once their Vet status was on file with PCL that benefit was automatically applied to every cruise they booked without them having to ask for it ever again. Kind of surprising that HAL would limit that. As I said earlier, we had booked a cruise weeks before I ever even knew about the AARP or educator benefit, but since I applied on the HAL site and got them verified, HAL automatically applied it to our next cruise. We didn’t know until we got onboard and checked our statement on the Navigator app that we got the OBC for all of it. What I don’t know is how to get it applied to my next two coming up later this year.  

I never had a problem before. I cruised quite a bit and I never had a problem getting both perks. Travel agent at AARP (since last July). As I mentioned earlier I got the both for next year. Talk to the travel agent before you book see if they know how to add everything. Mine  didn't. 

[margretha]

Spoke with "agent" at HAL. Learned we have the AARP OBC on one cruise and will get the military OBC on the other because you can't get the AARP and Military both on the same cruise. Hey, free money so don't want to look a gift ship in the hold but that seems at odds with others have written. So no complaints here but glad to have gotten the reservation info from this thread and gotten the $$.

margretha

[Shmoo here]

46 minutes ago, margretha said:

Spoke with "agent" at HAL. Learned we have the AARP OBC on one cruise and will get the military OBC on the other because you can't get the AARP and Military both on the same cruise. Hey, free money so don't want to look a gift ship in the hold but that seems at odds with others have written. So no complaints here but glad to have gotten the reservation info from this thread and gotten the $$.

margretha

I don't have first hand experience, yet (just got the AARP added to my account and no new cruises booked yet), but I can understand not being able to get AARP & educator or military discounts together since those perks are all from HAL. But combining AARP and a TA discount isn't coming out of the same pocket and should be allowable.

Edited May 8 by Shmoo here

[oakridger]

I have AARP (second cruise with it this year) and TA OBC on my December cruises.  Booked about 3 months ago.  It is possible!!!

 

~Nancy